**5.5. John Ray**

Ray18 was the first naturalist who truly represented this new era of careful observation. His father was a blacksmith and his mother was an herbal healer. He studied at the University of Cambridge, pursuing comparative anatomy although initially his main interest was botany. He taught Greek, mathematics and humanities at Cambridge but abandoned his teaching position after refusing to comply with the Act of Uniformity of 1662. He was a very religious person who undertook the study of nature to understand God's creation (Raven 1950). Fairly early he developed a plan with his student and patron, Francis Willughby**19** to produce a joint general natural history. To that end Ray and Willughby went on an extended tour of England and Europe (1662-1666), including the medical school at Montpellier. Although they did not always travel together both collected specimens, got involved in dissections and acquired books and illustrations (Kusukawa 2000), an endeavor bankrolled by Willughby. When Willughby died, Ray took over his parts of the general natural history. Willughby left him an annuity of £60 and Ray stayed on as tutor to Willughby's children until 1675, when Willughby's mother, also his patron, died, and the widow immediately terminated the relationship. Ray inherited a small farm that also contributed to the family's maintenance while he earned money from his productive publishing. Therefore Ray had the financial freedom to pursue his intellectual interests.

Ray's first published work on cetaceans was *Dissection of a Porpess* (1671). He does a much better job in describing the internal anatomy of this animal when compared with Rondelet but does not get into the detail that Tyson achieved later. During the narrative of his findings he keeps noticing that a porpoise has a lot in common with the "quadrupeds". Yet he persisted calling them "fishes."

Ray published *Historia piscium* (1686), under Willughby's name 14 years after his patron death, though Ray himself contributed the vast majority of the content. He carried out the first serious attempt to achieve a systematic arrangement, the success of which can be attributed by the fact that it served as a basis for the systematics work of the following

<sup>18</sup> *b.* 29 November 1627, Black Notley, near Brainton, Essex, England; *d.* 17 January 1705, Black Notley, England.

<sup>19</sup> *b.* 22 November 1635, Middleton, Warwickshire, England; *d.* 3 July 1672, Middleton.

century. His approach was based on direct observation, collaboration with other researchers, and critical reading of previous authors.

20 New Approaches to the Study of Marine Mammals

practical clinical commentary.

**5.5. John Ray** 

intellectual interests.

England.

he persisted calling them "fishes."

In addition to Tyson, Collins's anatomy draws largely upon the works of Thomas Willis. In the opening Epistle-Dedicatory to James II he claimed that various chapters "are illustrated by the Dissection of other Animals (which I have performed with Care and Diligence, speaking the wonderous Works of the Glorious Maker) rendering the Parts of Man's Body more clear and more intelligible." In volume two of his huge work he described numerous folio copper plates containing the most extensive comparative anatomy of the brain then existing, an expansive account of the functional significance of his findings, as well as

Ray18 was the first naturalist who truly represented this new era of careful observation. His father was a blacksmith and his mother was an herbal healer. He studied at the University of Cambridge, pursuing comparative anatomy although initially his main interest was botany. He taught Greek, mathematics and humanities at Cambridge but abandoned his teaching position after refusing to comply with the Act of Uniformity of 1662. He was a very religious person who undertook the study of nature to understand God's creation (Raven 1950). Fairly early he developed a plan with his student and patron, Francis Willughby**19** to produce a joint general natural history. To that end Ray and Willughby went on an extended tour of England and Europe (1662-1666), including the medical school at Montpellier. Although they did not always travel together both collected specimens, got involved in dissections and acquired books and illustrations (Kusukawa 2000), an endeavor bankrolled by Willughby. When Willughby died, Ray took over his parts of the general natural history. Willughby left him an annuity of £60 and Ray stayed on as tutor to Willughby's children until 1675, when Willughby's mother, also his patron, died, and the widow immediately terminated the relationship. Ray inherited a small farm that also contributed to the family's maintenance while he earned money from his productive publishing. Therefore Ray had the financial freedom to pursue his

Ray's first published work on cetaceans was *Dissection of a Porpess* (1671). He does a much better job in describing the internal anatomy of this animal when compared with Rondelet but does not get into the detail that Tyson achieved later. During the narrative of his findings he keeps noticing that a porpoise has a lot in common with the "quadrupeds". Yet

Ray published *Historia piscium* (1686), under Willughby's name 14 years after his patron death, though Ray himself contributed the vast majority of the content. He carried out the first serious attempt to achieve a systematic arrangement, the success of which can be attributed by the fact that it served as a basis for the systematics work of the following

<sup>18</sup> *b.* 29 November 1627, Black Notley, near Brainton, Essex, England; *d.* 17 January 1705, Black Notley,

<sup>19</sup> *b.* 22 November 1635, Middleton, Warwickshire, England; *d.* 3 July 1672, Middleton.

*Historia Piscium* is divided into two parts that were printed separatedly: the first is the narrative and the second, titled *Ichthyographia*, were the illustrations. Many libraries today have both bound together. As sources Ray used authors mentioned earlier in this chapter: Rondelet, Salviani, Gessner, Aldrovandi and Belon, among others. Yet, far from merely compiling information from them, Ray insisted in very comprehensive descriptions of species and discarded all monsters and mythical creatures mentioned by his predecessors. Ray not only removed narratives of marine invertebrates but also other aquatic animals such as the crocodile and the hippopotamus. He divided his subject matter into three groups: cetaceans, cartilaginous fishes, and bony fishes. He recognized that when it comes to reproduction and internal anatomy cetaceans are identical to the "viviparous quadrupeds." Still, he kept cetaceans within the "piscium" despite the fact that he was well aware that they were biologically distinct from fishes.

In his narrative of species Ray moved away from in the practical aspects related to these animals. Aspects such as usage for medical purposes were very common among previous authors because of their medical background. Yet, Ray was very keen at compiling names on the belief that a universal language could be construct based on the knowledge of nature. As Kusukawa (2000) has argued convincingly, Ray believed that there was a need for "a construction of a universal language based on a table that properly expressed the natural order and relations between things." Hence a precise description and classification was the route to achieve that goal. The final product counted not only on the intellectual support of the Royal Society's members who provided constructive criticism and moral support but also their financial support. The cost of publishing *Historia Piscium* was not only very high, mostly because of the expense of the illustrations (187 plates), but also the 500 copies printed sold poorly. As a consequence the Society could not print Isaac Newton's *Principia*.

Ray's third publication related to marine mammals was *Synopsis Methodica Animalium Quadrupedum et Serpentini Generis* (1693). By then he was totally convinced that cetaceans were not fishes: "For except as to the place on which they live, the external form of the body, the hairless skin and progressive swimming motion, they have almost nothing in common with fishes, but remaining characters agree with the viviparous quadrupeds." He placed today's terrestrial mammals (including the manatee) among the 'hairy animals' very close to the *Cetaceum genus* (cetaceans).

In *Synopsis* Ray included a section called *Pisces Cetacei seu Belluae marinae* where he expressed that these animals breath and give birth like the "oviparous quadrupeds." He grouped them into two categories according to the presence of teeth much as we do today separating odontocetes from mysticetes. Ras was the first in doing so. The species he cited were *Balaena vulgaris* (Rondelet), *Balaena* (Fin-Fish), *Physeter* or *Balaena physeteris*, *Orca* (Rondelet & Belon), *Cete* (Sperm whale), Pot Walfish, *Albus piscis cetaceus* (white fish), *Monoceros cetaceo* (*Narhual islandis*), *Delphino antiquorum* (dolphin, from Rondelet), *Phocaeno* (Rondelet & Belon), dissecting a specimen of the latter in 1669.

When Whales Became Mammals:

The Scientific Journey of Cetaceans From Fish to Mammals in the History of Science 23

Ray developed a division of animals characterized by having blood, breathing by lungs, two ventricles in the heart, and being viviparous. Ray subdivided this group into aquatic (cetaceans) and terrestrial or quadruped including sirenians (manatees and dugongs). He rejected tales of fabulous animals while perfecting Aristotle's classification by diving vertebrates into those having hearts with two ventricles (mammals and birds) from those with a single ventricle (reptiles, amphibians and fish). He also advanced the understanding of other groupings. He established the significance of the generic principle, defined species,

Ray came close to recognizing mammals as a separate group based on "warm-blood," vivipary, and hair. He conceded the relationship of cetaceans with viviparous quadrupeds; described genera and species; established ordinal classification of mammals; systematic phrases and names; used of descriptive phrases as well as monomial names (a taxonomic name consisting of a single word); a dichotomous ("A is B or not B") classification of mammals. Yet, he lacked the vision or intellectual courage to reunite marine mammals with their terrestrial relatives and still placed the former with the fish "in accordance with

common usage." Still he was possibly the best naturalist of the seventeenth century.

<sup>20</sup> *b*. 10 March 1705, Anundsjö, Västernorrland, Sweden; *d*. 27-28 September 1735, Amsterdam,

Artedi20 was the son of a parish priest who developed an interest in fishes from an early age. He studied medicine at the University of Uppsala, devoting most of his time at studying natural history. At 29 years of age he went to London for a year to study natural history collections and described the sighting of a whale in November 1734, probably downstream of the London Bridge. He then moved to Leiden, The Netherlands, to complete his medical studies and there he met Linnaeus, whom he knew from their native Sweden, forging a lifelong personal and professional relationship. Linnaeus introduced him to an Amsterdam chemist, Albert Seba, and Artedi started working on Seba's fish collection. Artedi died at the age of 30 by drowning in an Amsterdam canal. After his death, Linnaeus recovered his manuscripts and published *Ichthyologia* (1738) without amending Artedi's original work. Despite the fact that this was an unfinished work, it was a fundamental publication that marked the origin of ichthyology as we know it today. After a long (96 pages) introduction describing previous authorities on ichthyology the second part deals with the taxonomic terminology he used, particularly regarding the concept of genus and distinguishing between species and varieties. His system set the basis for the modern systematic classification of living organisms later established by Linnaeus. In part three he went into the classification of species including detailed description of them, some of which he had dissected himself. For this Artedi is considered the father of ichthyology (Wheeler 1962,

and was a leading contributor to the gigantic task of classification.

**5.6. Peter Artedi** 

1987, Broberg 1987).

The Netherlands.

**Figure 5.** Illustrations from Tyson's (1680) description of the internal anatomy of a porpoise. Notice the remarkable accuracy of the depictions.

Ray developed a division of animals characterized by having blood, breathing by lungs, two ventricles in the heart, and being viviparous. Ray subdivided this group into aquatic (cetaceans) and terrestrial or quadruped including sirenians (manatees and dugongs). He rejected tales of fabulous animals while perfecting Aristotle's classification by diving vertebrates into those having hearts with two ventricles (mammals and birds) from those with a single ventricle (reptiles, amphibians and fish). He also advanced the understanding of other groupings. He established the significance of the generic principle, defined species, and was a leading contributor to the gigantic task of classification.

Ray came close to recognizing mammals as a separate group based on "warm-blood," vivipary, and hair. He conceded the relationship of cetaceans with viviparous quadrupeds; described genera and species; established ordinal classification of mammals; systematic phrases and names; used of descriptive phrases as well as monomial names (a taxonomic name consisting of a single word); a dichotomous ("A is B or not B") classification of mammals. Yet, he lacked the vision or intellectual courage to reunite marine mammals with their terrestrial relatives and still placed the former with the fish "in accordance with common usage." Still he was possibly the best naturalist of the seventeenth century.
